richonlybyname

Does anybody have recent experience with matching BA Gold/OWE status to Star Alliance? I have a few flights coming up (shorthaul economy) with Lufthansa and Swiss and would like to avail of lounges etc.

I see United have a status match:

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/app...omoCode=TB8230

But point 2 in Ts and Cs states:
Premier membership materials will be not issued for the 90-day Offer Period. You may enjoy Premier benefits on United®- or United® Express-operated flights by providing your account number when making reservations or at check-in. During the 90-day Offer Period, you may not have access to all reciprocal Premier benefits with United's partners, including access to Star Alliance lounges.

Is this true? Is this term enforced for European lounges? Is there a better status match option than this currently available?

Thanks!

Innocent Abroad

You could try with TK (details here) but I'm not sure it is worth the hassle.

That said, I participated two years ago in the UA challenge and it worked fine for lounge access in Europe with LH.

tomparskate

Turkish Airlines in the past have been very generous with Status Matches from OW carriers.

If I were you I would give them a call explain the situation and say you are planning on taking some Turkish Airlines flights soon as well if you get matched to * Alliance Gold. They are most likely to either give you a challenge or give you a 3 month Star Alliance Gold or maybe longer.

Don't apply online but give them a call I always have more success when I speak to someone in the airline industry then fill out a form on the computer.

Good Luck

englisha

You'll still be able to enter the lounges during the status match period with united, even though you wont have the physical card. Your status will show on their system and on the app card as you get status during the challenge. I did this recently and took several flights in the 90 days and was granted lounge access, at least this was my experience last year.

yb90

United status matched me for 90 days to gold when I was GGL. I attached it to my booking with Thai, no issues with getting all the benefits, you will not get a physical card.

LondonElite

UA is one option, and a good programme. You can do a challenge there, but won't get the *A benefits immediately. TK also hands out *G like candy.

LuoboTiX

No, UA and TK currently both offers and only offers Challenge with *A benefits immediately.

midvid

The TK status challenge is a few emails back and forth plus a scan of your Exec Club card and passport bio page. I kept TK Elite for the full 2 years. They changed the rules so many times it was hard to keep up, so not sure what they are now. It was do one international flight on Turkish within 3 months, then get 15,000 status miles over one full year to get the second. The tricky bit (which they did not communicate) was the points reset at the end of year one, meaning you had to fly double to keep status beyond year 2 (their status runs in 2 year blocks).

It is worth doing if you have a load of Star Alliance flights coming up and if you do one on Turkish, you are good for a year.

ratypus

Don't even bother asking Lufthansa or Swiss - I tried, with premium long-haul flight bookings on both airlines already in hand, and just got told no.

Depends where you go with Star Alliance and in what class of travel...for example, if you're used to GF at Terminal 5 you will probably find the regular business class lounge at ZRH (in the long-haul terminal) more than adequate without bothering with matching Senator/*G status

LuoboTiX

TK challenge was given for 4 months actually. Tons of materials in this forum discussed. Anyway it's still among the easiest *G to maintain even w/o challenge

richonlybyname

Thanks for the advice. I'm now sat in the senator lounge in Vienna for 3 hours after a missed connection rather than slumming it in the terminal. I went for the 90 day United Match which came through in just a few days after completing the form and sending a screenshot of my BAEC My Account page.